Hungary will not endorse EU energy sanctions against Russia - Foreign Minister
European unity will certainly not be possible in the face of possible EU sanctions that could lead to the restriction or suspension of energy supplies by Russia, Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Monday in Brussels, during the break of the meeting of EU foreign ministers.
We will not support sanctions that jeopardise Hungary's energy security,
he stated, reiterating what Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had said earlier.
We have entered a new dimension in terms of war risks, so from now on we must take an even harder and more unequivocal stance to safeguard our national interests, i.e. peace and security in Hungary, said Szijjártó.
Reuters and Politico reported this morning that many new Russian names could be added to the fifth EU sanctions list, and the Poles and Baltic states are also pushing hard for an oil embargo against Russia, which will be discussed at today's EU foreign ministers' summit and the EU summit on Thursday and Friday. A fifth package of sanctions is likely to be triggered if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine or starts a heavy bombardment of Kyiv, so it is beginning to emerge what the precondition for a tightening of sanctions would be.
Arriving at today's EU foreign ministers' summit in Brussels, the Irish and Lithuanian ministers openly backed the notion to impose an embargo on Russian oil as part of the EU's fifth package of sanctions. Meanwhile, the Dutch prime minister spoke out against the plan, while the German foreign affairs chief took a cautious stance.
Meanwhile, in another event, the Dutch Prime Minister made it clear that Europe is so dependent on Russian oil and gas that it simply cannot cut itself off from it overnight.
The Kremlin said on Monday Europe would be hit hard in the event of an embargo on Russian oil, striking the continent's energy balance, but would not affect the United States.
Such an embargo would very seriously impact the global oil market, very badly impact energy balance on the European continent,
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a daily conference call.
Moscow itself has warned that EU sanctions on Russian oil could prompt it to close a gas pipeline to Europe. For now, the 27-nation EU, which relies on Russia for 40% of its gas, with Germany among the most dependent of the bloc's large economies, is divided on how to tackle the energy issue.
"Americans would remain as they are and would feel much better than Europeans (in the event of oil embargo). This would be hard for Europeans - such a decision would hit everyone," Reuters cited Peskov as saying.
Cover photo: Getty Images
